ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
February 20, 2007
Attendance (X indicates present, exc = excused, pre-arranged, absence)
Behavioral & Social Sciences
Cannon, Elaine
X
Gold, Christina
X
Widman, Lance
X
Wynne, Michael
X
Humanities
Breckheimer, Debra
Hong, Lyman
Larsen, Karen
Marcoux, Pete
Uyemura, Evelyn
X
X
X
X
X
Business
Halamka, Dagmar
Miller, Tim
Thompson, Jacquie
X
Counseling
Beley, Kate
Gaines, Ken
Raufman, Lisa
X
X
Fine Arts
Ahmadour, Ali
Berney, Dan
Davidson, Jason
Georges, William
Wells, Chris
Industry & Technology
Cafarchia, Vic
Hofmann, Ed
Kahan, Walt / Steve Nothern
X
Marston, Doug
X
Rodriguez, George
X
X
X
X
Health Sciences & Athletics
Van Lue, Nick / Hazell, Tom
Morgan, Kathy (sharing)
Moon, Mary (sharing)
Sinopoli, Louis / Makaru, Roy
Stanbury, Corey
X
Learning Resources Unit
Dever, Susan
X
Striepe, Claudia
X
Mathematical Sciences
Ghyam, Massoud
Kasabian, Judy
Scott, Greg
Tummers, Susan
X
Wang, Lijun
X
Natural Sciences
Cowell, Chas
X
Golestaneh, Kamran
X
Palos, Teresa
Vakil, David
X
Adjunct Faculty
Almos, Carolyn
Robertson, Gary
X
Ex Officio Attendees: Janet Young, Francisco Arce, John Baker
Guests: Ann Collette, Saul Panski, Carol Sandvik, Darwin Smith, Lars Kjeseth, Jenny Simon
Unless noted otherwise, all page numbers refer to the packet used during the meeting, not the
current packet you are reading now.
Summary of events during meeting
1. There have been several staffing changes, mostly among deans.
2. Faculty minimum qualifications are due to SD soon.
3. Two policies from the Educational Policies committee will be ready for the next meeting
4. $100,000 in one-time funds is being spent on faculty development. See page 32.
5. Senate officer elections are coming this semester.
6. Ann Collette is retiring at the end of the semester.
7. Core competencies (i.e. campus-wide SLOs) were distributed and will come to senate for
ratification.
8. Senate’s constitution will need to change to incorporate Compton. CEC will get 5 senators if
the current draft is enacted.
9. An emergency motion passed related to senate’s participation in the faculty reductions at
Compton and the effect on Compton’s curriculum.
10. The senate’s executive council created a list of agenda items for the semester, including 4
high-priority items.
President’s report – Susan Dever (henceforth SD)
1. Potential agenda addition: potential endorsement of Mike Botello for Board of Governors.
2. Transitions – Ian Haslam (Dean of Health Sciences & Athletics) and Kristi Blackburn (Dean
of Fine Arts), have resigned from El Camino College. Haslam was replaced by interim dean
Neil MacCallen, while Blackburn is being replaced in-house temporarily. Ron Way (Dean of
Industry and Technology) will retire at the end of the semester. Kathy Townsend (director of
nursing) may soon retire also. We have a new Vice President of Student Services, Jeanie
Nishime. Dipte Patel is now the permanent director of the Special Resource Center. We have
a lot of vacancies both here and at Compton.
3. ECC has begun a review of minimum qualifications for being hired as a full-time faculty.
Compton has adopted the state minimum; ECC has a few extra and/or different requirements
for some areas. Make sure your division has sent any suggested revisions to SD as soon as
possible. This should be finished in March.
Minutes – no action was taken during the meeting
Educational Policies Report – Evelyn Uyemura
Two board policies will be ready for senate at the next meeting: audits and library policy.
Discussions about Board Policy 2510, regarding participation in governance, is at a standstill. On
the agenda for the next meeting: dismissal policy and probation.
Faculty Development – Lisa Raufman
Page 32 contains a draft of a budget for Professional Development at ECC. There is a one-time
source of $100,000 to use this year, and these funds will be primarily allocated for conference
attendance. Note on page 33, item 7, that we are planning a local version of the Great Teacher’s
Seminar. Everything you see is still in draft. Compton also received similar state one-time funds.
The ECC’s senate’s VP of Faculty Development will need to be elected next year.
Finance and Special Projects – Lance Widman
PBC
Minutes appear on page 37 which primarily deal with the state budget. The state budget is quite
supportive of community colleges. Page 41-42 contain PBC’s recommendations for $1 million
for this academic year (from a total pot of $2.5 million, $1 million of which was previous
allocated by the president). The recommendations focused on student retention. The $1 million
in funds are one-time only. PBC expects the balance (approximately $500,000) will be devoted
to Program Review. On page 43-45 are a draft version of the PBC minutes of the October 19
meeting. This meeting dealt with a resolution passed by senate expressing disappointment in this
year’s handling of the budget. However, when the minutes were officially approved, that
discussion and the motion itself were expunged from the minutes. The Board of Trustees has
seen (because it was also passed by senate) but not responded to this resolution. It was noted that
law only requires the Board to respond if the Board disagrees with the motion.
Deans Council
The council is focusing on enrollment management, specifically almost entirely about
recruitment. Retention and success are rarely mentioned in these discussions. SD noted that in
most of the Enrollment Management meetings, the focus has been on the mechanics of getting
students through. The people in the meetings feel that success and retention are supposed to be a
faculty-driven process.
Elaine Cannon noted that the effect of financial aid and its dispersal is related to student retention
and success.
Legislative Action – Pete Marcoux
A state daily report website has a link with a list with all of the relevant-to-us bills in the state
legislature, including a few interesting ones about athletics, fees, student conduct. This will be
Accreditation is on our plates for the next year or so. We need faculty participation in this
process. Similarly, faculty are needed for SLOs.
Elections for academic senate officers, excluding president, will be near the end of this semester.
Curriculum Committee – Janet Young
At the end of this semester, Ann Collette, who has served ECC for over 30 years, will be retiring.
Good luck and may fortune be with you, Ann!
There are 6 curriculum meetings scheduled this semester, and the committee will focus on course
review for courses that haven’t been reviewed in 10+ years. The committee is also working on
revising the distance education approval process. Currently this process goes through the
Distance Education Advisory Council, which is an additional step. The committee is also
focusing on getting the electronic course outline system functional.
Compton Center report – Saul Panski
Report deferred to new business.
Student Learning Outcomes – Lars Kjeseth & Jenny Simon
Report deferred.
Calendar Committee – Lyman Hong
No report. One thing that occurred this year is this semester began on a Saturday, which was
followed by a holiday, and then two days where computers were down to print class rosters.
Academic Technology Committee – Pete Marcoux, Michael Wynne
John Wagstaff announced during a committee meeting that software has been budgeted
$900,000, although this doesn’t include academic software.
Distance Education has begun to switch to Etudes (from Blackboard), and the transition has been
problematic. It could be a powerful tool when the bugs are worked out.
ECC is focusing on enrollment management, but staff shortages are severely affecting certain
areas, such as distance education (which is run largely by one person: Howard Story).
Accreditation – Arvid Spor & Susan Dever
Accreditation is moving forward. There has been some attrition on some committees, in
particular, the instructional program standard IIa. We need more involvement on this particular
subcommittee. See the email Evelyn sent out this morning (February 20).
Enrollment Management – Francisco Arce & John Baker
No report.
New Business
Student Learning Outcomes – Lars Kjeseth & Jenny Simon
The first two pages (51-52) of the report on SLOs, contain a good summary. Towards the end of
the report are a few good examples of course level SLOs. Please thank your divisions for the
work done to date, including on flex day. Much progress was made on Spring flex day.
Handed out: the list of core competencies, which also appear on page 50 and again on page 64 in
the packet. The core competencies are basically a set of “folders” into which program-related
and course-level SLOs will be sorted.
The SLO committee will ask senate to ratify the core competencies at a future meeting.
It was noted that there is no conflict with the core competencies and ECC’s mission & vision
statements, although the core competencies were not developed in parallel. It was also noted that
the college mission & vision statements may soon be revised.
The department and division level SLOs were developed by both ECC & Compton faculty.
There is only one set of courses and one set of SLOs for the two institutions.
Academic Senate’s Constitution
The Compton Education Center needs to be incorporated into the ECC academic senate, and this
requires revising the constitution. This revision needs to be done soon.
The ECC folks have been very supportive of the language that was drafted to revise the academic
senate constitution. The gist is that the Compton center would count as a “division” in terms of
senate representation. That would entitle them to 5 senators.
Compton resolution
A motion was handed out regarding “Consultation with Academic Senate to ensure provision of
comprehensive educational programs at a formally designated center.”
According to AB318, Compton would continue to offer a comprehensive educational
curriculum. However, low enrollment may cause elimination of faculty and possibly specific
programs. The motion asks that the ECC senate be consulted before such decisions are made.
Saul Panski asked that the motion be treated as an emergency.
There is a suspicion that faculty (and/or program) reductions are being done for financial
reasons, but nothing has been indicated in public that suggests Compton is in financial trouble,
such as using much of the $30 million loan permitted by the state.
The emergency motion was made by Doug Marston & Pete Marcoux. The emergency status
passed. Then Pete Marcoux & Lisa Raufman moved to approve the motion.
It was noted that this is also relevant to ECC, because processes like these might develop at
ECC.
It was also noted that the senate’s role regards effects on curriculum, and that this is a matter
related to curriculum.
Several changes were suggested. Replace “consulted” with “integrally involved, as stated in
Code 53200, before any decision about any proposed program or faculty reductions at the Center
take place, and …” and “requests” changed to “requires.” Change “offerings” to “programs.”
The “resolved” now reads:
Therefore be it resolved that the Academic Senate does hereby require
that it be integrally involved, as stated in Title 5, Subchapter 2,
Sections 53200-53206, in any proposed program or faculty reductions at
the Center, and that it be provided with a plan that will ensure that
comprehensive educational programs will continue to be provided on that
campus under the auspices of the El Camino College District.
The meat of this issue is that senate be involved in this decision.
The motion passed with one abstention.
Upcoming business
The senate executive council set 4 high priority items for this semester:
1. Senate constitution and structural changes (to incorporate Compton into senate)
2. Accreditation self study, program review, SLOs, and faculty participation
3. Enrollment management
4. Collegial consultation and shared governance
Other tasks include, in no particular order:
1. Elections for senate officers
2. Constitutional changes
3. Board policies (e.g. Ed policies committee outputs)
4. Review of minimum qualifications and equivalencies of faculty
5. Reviewing course pre-reqs, co-reqs.
6. Reviews and recommendations for online grade submission, attendance, etc.
7. Hard copy, printed class rosters vs online class rosters
8. Automatic class waiting list
9. Overlapping class times for courses
10. Increase Friday classes to meet needs and increase enrollment
11. Simplifying priority registration
12. Audit policy
Announcements
Fire Technology expects to graduate a woman from its program this year, for the first time in a
little while.
ITS may shut down Colleague during the spring recess. These decisions are made primarily to
reduce impact on ITS, rather than reducing impact on academic programs and registration.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:55pm.